SparkFun Electronics Commentsurn:uuid:214d0e4e-f1b1-d287-ce26-ac5b4c9f82492015-03-03T11:49:53-07:00SparkFun ElectronicsDeanB on KIT-09565 - It's a Through-Hole Christmas, Charlie Brown!DeanBurn:uuid:28a2a9e2-00fc-8231-47ec-f40422debbe42013-12-11T09:30:32-07:00<p>Please? A few more?</p>Customer #1863 on KIT-09565 - It's a Through-Hole Christmas, Charlie Brown!Customer #1863urn:uuid:870213e1-a665-026d-3893-7ea65f0477962012-12-18T13:09:43-07:00<p>I believe the line of code should be</p>
<pre><code>for(int s_led=1; s_led &lt; 4; s_led++)
</code></pre>
<p>because LED=s_led and the switch statement has cases for LED equal to 1, 2 and 3.</p>charliebrown on KIT-09565 - It's a Through-Hole Christmas, Charlie Brown!charliebrownurn:uuid:5f9b56b8-6903-28e7-e745-b11f71b866e92012-12-01T12:02:53-07:00<p>There is a bug in the source code posted above. The line
for(int s_led=2; s_led s_led &lt; 4; s_led++)
should read
for(int s_led=2; s_led &lt; 5; s_led++)
or one set of LEDs will never light!</p>Ed Hartnett on KIT-09565 - It's a Through-Hole Christmas, Charlie Brown!Ed Hartnetturn:uuid:da8d70b1-c035-40c0-aef9-bebc7f72a9632011-09-18T06:19:21-06:00<p>My nine-year old put this together in about 20 minutes - the first time he has fired the solder gun in anger!<br/>
Plugged in the batteries and everything worked. He was delighted. ;-)</p>Customer #40311 on KIT-09565 - It's a Through-Hole Christmas, Charlie Brown!Customer #40311urn:uuid:eabbb838-55ea-6f62-5f7e-3f3859da3e212010-12-27T09:47:35-07:00<p>Mine does that as well. I upped the voltage to 5 volts and it runs constantly. It seems two AA cells is just not enough.</p>EvanTeitelman on KIT-09565 - It's a Through-Hole Christmas, Charlie Brown!EvanTeitelmanurn:uuid:e137908e-47b7-a433-8a0d-d8033475d6782010-12-23T16:55:06-07:00<p>They all do that to conserve power.<br/>
If it ran continuously, it would get boring after a while.</p>pdp7 on KIT-09565 - It's a Through-Hole Christmas, Charlie Brown!pdp7urn:uuid:26ecdad4-86bf-2735-b051-e0a7a67cd0f52010-12-21T09:35:22-07:00<p>Howdy - I built the kit last night, but it seems the pattern runs incorrectly.<br/>
When I power it on, the yellow LED turns on solid and then it fades in and out sets the three sets of 3 LEDs (lasting about 2 secs for each group).<br/>
However, then all the LEDs turn off for about 30 seconds (a seemingly long time).<br/>
I&rsquo;m guessing this is not the correct operation. One thought was that the internal clock is running slow for some reason but not sure how to verify and correct that.<br/>
Anyone else have this problem?<br/>
Thanks,<br/>
Drew</p>omnivescence on KIT-09565 - It's a Through-Hole Christmas, Charlie Brown!omnivescenceurn:uuid:d1978e88-71dc-b772-6393-e097a233b87d2010-01-16T21:15:25-07:00<p>lol, i didn&rsquo;t read the other comments :D nevermind&hellip;</p>omnivescence on KIT-09565 - It's a Through-Hole Christmas, Charlie Brown!omnivescenceurn:uuid:dc600d30-9577-55e3-b762-457af0c201892010-01-16T21:14:19-07:00<p>I&rsquo;m pretty sure it uses the internal oscillator.</p>tz on KIT-09565 - It's a Through-Hole Christmas, Charlie Brown!tzurn:uuid:5601efce-7e1a-a883-a9b4-e932f63001c32009-12-29T11:18:08-07:00<p>If you have the actual kit, you should be able to read out the program by issuing a read command to the programmer.<br/>
The code should be very simple, but without having a kit it would be hard for me to recreate (though I could get something to flash).<br/>
There is also the issue of &ldquo;the fuses&rdquo; - they control how some of the ports operate, e.g. if you need a crystal or something else.<br/>
(I got an AVR Dragon from digikey which lets me use something called High Voltage Serial Programming that lets me fix wrong fuse settings or other problems, and a chip-clip so I don&rsquo;t need the 6 pin ISP connector - I do use a ZIF socket I got from sparkfun).</p>St3fan on KIT-09565 - It's a Through-Hole Christmas, Charlie Brown!St3fanurn:uuid:800d9de8-2947-ea28-1a4b-85f4cadc25332009-12-22T21:57:15-07:00<p>Wow that yellow LED is so extremely bright!<br/>
Can you guys post the software so that we can hack this thing?</p>zagGrad on KIT-09565 - It's a Through-Hole Christmas, Charlie Brown!zagGradurn:uuid:4d279483-2ad9-844d-970a-797570c514db2009-12-21T10:49:12-07:00<p>The LEDs are controlled using a method called Pulse Width Modulation (PWM). Essentially a square wave whose duty cycle changes in order to create different brightnesses; current consumption can also be managed using PWM.<br/>
We also benefit from the fact that there are 3 LEDs on each output pin (except the star). Each pin can only source around 40 mA, so when that current is split between all 3 LEDs we&rsquo;re looking good!</p>abartky on KIT-09565 - It's a Through-Hole Christmas, Charlie Brown!abartkyurn:uuid:f7fa82ac-4cd8-0aa1-7738-7802b0841dee2009-12-21T00:36:41-07:00<p>Just out of curiosity, what tricks did you use so you don&rsquo;t need current limiting resistors?<br/>
Looks like for the Green LEDs, they are forward voltage of 3.0 to 3.4V, so I assume for those, you don&rsquo;t bother with one as 2 batteries shouldn&rsquo;t exceed 3.4V.<br/>
For the LED, that has a lower forward voltage. Are you running some kind of square wave with a duty cycle so that you don&rsquo;t overload the LED?<br/>
Thanks :-)</p>zv470 on KIT-09565 - It's a Through-Hole Christmas, Charlie Brown!zv470urn:uuid:29af6b98-8822-311d-9f2a-8166d24da0112009-12-20T11:38:17-07:00<p>@promethean Thanks :) that was really informative. I ordered an AVR chip and oscillator&hellip; so I&rsquo;m looking forward to lots of AVR fun. Interesting I don&rsquo;t need the oscillator unless I need the faster speed. Wonder if the power usage is a lot less at 1MHz compared to 16MHz.</p>promethean on KIT-09565 - It's a Through-Hole Christmas, Charlie Brown!prometheanurn:uuid:0d74d89a-49e7-5873-69bf-223e58d81d9f2009-12-20T06:41:08-07:00<p>@zv470: Many AVR micros (maybe all? I don&rsquo;t know) have a built-in clock. For example, the ATmega168 defaults internally to 1MHz, but can go up to 8MHz, and only needs an external crystal for MHz > 8MHz &lt;= 20Mhz speeds.</p>zv470 on KIT-09565 - It's a Through-Hole Christmas, Charlie Brown!zv470urn:uuid:00494537-0c44-81dc-bb6b-d916aa859ee12009-12-19T22:39:40-07:00<p>excuse my ignorance, don&rsquo;t you need an oscillator or something to provide a clock/timer signal to a micro-controller?</p>Lee on KIT-09565 - It's a Through-Hole Christmas, Charlie Brown!Leeurn:uuid:5034e7f7-682e-ade2-27f5-7f96bce34b7a2009-12-17T22:23:07-07:00<p>If you plan on routing this board on a CNC mill, an outline with a little smoother shape will help minimize damage to the machine. The outline EAGLE creates is made up by a ton of tiny segments with a lot of sharp angle &ndash; bad stuff from a manufacturing point of view. I generated a new outline that minimizes vector error (direction change, basically) which can be had at this direct link:<br/>
<a href="http://www.circuitpeople.com/Blog/Tree1.oln" rel="nofollow" >http://www.circuitpeople.com/Blog/Tree1.oln</a><br/>
Enjoy!</p>RobotGrrl on KIT-09565 - It's a Through-Hole Christmas, Charlie Brown!RobotGrrlurn:uuid:8077308c-973b-7312-cd68-9aa57c18d6c22009-12-17T13:16:47-07:00<p>Can you post the source code for the ATtiny? :)</p>jandirks on KIT-09565 - It's a Through-Hole Christmas, Charlie Brown!jandirksurn:uuid:0f527f97-9976-20b3-955a-20538a46b3972009-12-17T10:56:30-07:00<p>With reference to this item: Adafruit receives a letter from lawyers representing Velleman<br/>
<a href="http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2009/12/17/happy-holidays-adafruit-receives-a-letter-from-lawyers-representing-velleman/" rel="nofollow" >http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2009/12/17/happy-holidays-adafruit-receives-a-letter-from-lawyers-representing-velleman/</a></p>